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Michael K. Chen Architecture

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Asian/Pacific Islander, LGBTQIA+ owned

New York, NY

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The Children's Library at Concourse House

MKCA was honored when a generous donor approached us to design a new children’s library for families transitioning out of homelessness.

Established in 1991, Concourse House is a Bronx-based shelter that serves women with you children, and works to eliminate homelessness by providing these families with safe, stable, transitional housing, coupled with a range of social services and programming to help those families make successful transitions into permanent housing.

The library is an important new component of the educational resources for the children at Concourse House, and is unique among the other program spaces as a place that is specifically dedicated to books and reading, and a much needed space for volunteer and staff led readings, story times, and other events organized around books. The importance of reading for the cognitive development and emotional health of children is widely recognized, and the library is designed to provide space and opportunity for exploration and imagination for children who more often than not, do not have access to their own books.

We were inspired by the vision of the donor and the mission of the library to ask how our service to the project could extend beyond the typical design and coordination of the physical elements of the library, and how our relationships with the design and construction community could be instrumental to providing services, materials, and fabrication for the library, and to resource and support the important work it does with a vulnerable population.

MKCA provided all design and architecture services pro-bono, and led the effort to solicit additional in-kind donations from other designers, suppliers, fabricators, and contractors in service of the project. In addition, we initiated in-person and online fundraising efforts, and organized a benefit auction, hosted by Paddle8 and featuring donated works from some of the leading lights of the contemporary design and art.

Situated in an dark and underused mezzanine space under the vaulted ceiling of the Concourse House multipurpose space, the library is designed to break from the institutional quality of the other program spaces in the building, to engage the children visually through a bright, colorful, and playful environment, and to allow for flexible transitions between individual and organized group readings and story telling.

The design transforms what was once a dimly lit and crowded space into a bright, playful, and warm space for the library, incorporating durable but residential-feeling materials, and soft integrated cove lighting. Curved paneling and shelving introduce a sense of play, against the dark barrel vaulted ceiling of the chapel space

 
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Status: Built
Location: Bronx, NY, US
Firm Role: Architect
Additional Credits: Made possible by the generous support of Kate and Julie Yamin

Project Team: Braden Caldwell, Michael Chen

General Contractor: Structure Ventures

Contributors to the Library:
Alex Proba
Asher Israelow
Bec Brittain
Birnam Wood Studio
Christopher Kurtz
Chronicle Books
David Weeks
Egg Collective
Ezra Tessler, Courtesy of 315 Gallery
Fernando Mastrangelo Studio
Haley Josephs, Courtesy of 315 Gallery
Kin & Company
Kinder Modern
Ladies and Gentlemen Studio
Maharam
Manzanares Furniture
Mary Wallis for Lindsey Adelman Studio
Pelle
Phaedo, Courtesy of Colony
Ramos Trucking
Schoolhouse Electric
Structure Ventures
Visibility
Vonnegut Kraft and Mary Ping